My second trip of 2018 to Hong Kong – back in March I visited with Lauren, staying in an appropriately-named hotel in Central and spending our days wandering, chatting and stopping for avocado on toast.

Fast forward a few months and a much hotter and more humid Hong Kong was waiting for us. My boyfriends’s friends have recently relocated from North London to South Lantau and staying with them for a week was the perfect mix of HK’s frantic city pace, chilled beaches, boat trips, gin-fuelled board game sessions and making them my friends, too.

Our friends’ place had an amazing view over the beach and mountains. Most of our week was spent on Lantau itself – the humidity was a little crazy, even for someone who lives in Dubai (where it is actually humid, much to everyone’s surprise) and I very much appreciated the  slower pace and being able to take frequent dips in the sea and pool.

Staying pale on the beach – borrowed the hat and beach cover-up because I packed way more “city break” than beach holiday and ended up not needing half of what I packed, including heels and my entire make-up bag. Blissful.

The “Big Buddha” is a Lantau must. We took the glass-floored cable car up to pay him a visit and then caught a taxi to Tai O. Walking up those steps in the humidity was not my least-grumpiest moment.

A HK first for me, Tai O is best seen by boat. Trigger warning: smelly fish but seeing the remains of the traditional way of life here was well worth it.

Grateful to have packed my prescription sunglasses, we spotted some dolphins off of Tai O – given the amount of plastic pollution in HK (and everywhere else) I was sceptical that we would see any but certain that there are far fewer now and that we were lucky to see the ones we did.

Our friends’ favourite Lantau restaurant, The Gallery in Tong Fuk serves up amazing salads and (for the carnivorous) amazing steaks…. The menu is written up daily on a chalk board and the restaurant is unpretentious with beautiful, simple food done really well.

On our final evening, we took a mini BBQ down to the beach to watch the sunset with G&Ts and skies clear enough to see the stars. I never thought that HK was somewhere I’d associate with being super relaxed but there are so many sides to this city and, if time permits, you have to explore beyond Central and HK Island.